Unit 4

The scientific study of personality and its development, structure, traits, processes, variations, and disordered forms (personality disorders)

The scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another.

How we form impressions of ourselves and others, including attributions of behaviour

The theory that we explain someone's behvaiour by crediting either the situation (situational attribution) or the person's stable, enduring traits (dispositional attribution)

The tendency for observers, when analyzing others' behaviour, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition

The tendency for those acting in a situation to attribute their behvaiour to external causes, but for observers to attribute others' behaviour to internal causes.

Unjustifiable and usually negative attitude toward a group and its members

Generalized (sometimes accurate but overgeneralised) belief about a group of people

Unjustifiable negative behaviour toward a group or its members

The tendency for people to believe the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get

The "we" aspect of out self-concept

People with whom we share a common identity

Those perceived as different or apart from our ingroup

The tendency to favor our own group

Theory that prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame

Tendency to recall faces of one's own face more accurately than faces of other races

Feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events

The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later to a larger request

A set of expectations about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave

Theory that we feel discomfort when we hold conflicting beliefs or when their actions contradict their belief, motivating them to reduce the inconsistency.

Changing people's attitudes, potentially influencing their actions

Occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker's attractiveness

Occurs when interested people's thinking is influenced by considering evidence and arguments

A society's understood rules for accepted and expected behaviour. Norms prescribe "proper" behaviour in individual and social situations

Adjusting our behaviour or thinking to coincide with a group standard

Influence resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval

Influence resulting from a person's willingness to accept other's opinions about reality

Complying with an order of a command

In the presence of others, improved performance on simple or well-learned tasks, and worsened performance on difficult tasks

The tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable

The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occuring in group situations that foster arousal and anoymity

The enhancement of a group's prevailing inclinations through discussions within the group

The mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives

The enduring behaviours, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next

A place with clearly defined and reliably imposed norms

A place with flexible and informal norms

Any physical or verbal behaviour intended to harm someone physically or emotionally

The principle that frustration (the blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal) creates anger; which generates aggression

A culturally modeled guide for how to act in various situations

The tendency for repeated exposure to novel stimuli to increase our liking to them

An aroused state of intense positive absorption in another, usually present at the beginning of a romantic relationship

The deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined

A condition in which people receive from a relationship in proportion to what they give to it

The act of revealing intimate aspects of ourselves to others

Unselfish regard for the welfare of others

The tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present

The theory that our social behaviour is an exchange process, the aim of which is to maximise benefits and minimise costs

An expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped them

An expectation that people will help those needing their help

A perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas

A situation in which two parties, by each pursuing their self-interest rather than the good of the group, become caught in mutually destructive behaviour

Mutual views often held by conflicting parties, as which each side sees itself as ethical and peaceful and views the other side as evil and aggressive

A belief that leads to its own fufillment

Shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation

A strat designed to decrease tension between two parties

An individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting

Theories that view personality with a focus on the unconscious mind and the importance of childhood experiences

Attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking exposure and interpret unconscious tensions

A reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories

Information processing of which we are unaware

A method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing

A reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives

Partly conscious, "executive" part of personality that mediates among the demands of the id, the superego, and reality.

Partly conscious part of personality that represents internalised ideals and provides standards for judgement and for future aspirations

In psychoanalytic theory, the ego's protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality

In psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories

Carl Jung's concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species' history

A theory of death-related anxiety; explores people's emotional and behavioural responses to reminders of their impending death

A projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes

A personality test that provides ambiguous images designed to trigger projection of one's inner dynamics and explore the preconscious and unconscious mind

A projective test that seeks to identify people's inner feelings by analyzing how they interpret 10 inkblots

Theories that view personality with a focus on the potential for healthy personal growth

Maslow's hierarchy of needs, often visualised with a pyramid, with needs nearer the base taking priority until they are satisfied

One of the ultimate psychological needs that arises after basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved; the motivation to fufill one's potential

The striving for identity, meaning, and purpose beyond the self

A caring, accepting, nonjudgmental attitude, which is believed to help people develop self-awareness and self-acceptance

All our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question "Who am I?"

A characteristic pattern of behaviour or a disposition to feel and act in certain ways, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports

A questionnaire (often with T-F or Agree-Disagree) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviours, used to assess selected personality traits

The most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests

A test created by selecting from a pool of items that discriminate between groups rather than rely on theory

Five traits that describe personality

A view of behaviour as influenced by the interaction between people's traits (including their traits) and their social context

Focuses on the effects of learning on our personality development

The interacting influences of behaviour, internal cognition, and environment

In modern psych, assumed to be the center of personality, the organizer of our thoughts, feelings, and actions

Overestimating others' noticing and evaluating our appearances, performance, and blunders (as we presume a spotlight shines on us)

Our feelings of high or low self-worth

Our sense of competence and effectiveness

A readiness to perceive ourselves favorably

Excessive self-love and self-absorption

A cultural pattern that emphasises people's own goals over group goals and defines identity mainly in terms of unique personal attributes

A cultural pattern that prioritises the goals of important groups (often one's extended family or work groups)

A need or desire that energises and directs behaviour

A complex behaviour that is rigidly patterned throughout a species and is unlearned

A basic bodily requirement

Idea that physiological need creates an aroused state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need

A tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state; regulation of any aspect of body chemistry, such as blood glucose, around a particular level

A positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates behaviour

The principle that performance increases with arousal only up to a point, beyond which performance decreases

The need to build and maintain relationships and to feel part of a group

The theory that we feel motivated to satisfy our needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness

The desire to perform a behaviour effectively for its own sake

The desire to perform a behaviour effectively for an external need or reward

Deliberate social exclusion of individuals or groups

A desire for significant accomplishment, for mastery of skills or ideas, for control, and for attaining a high standard

In psych, passion and perseverance in the pursuit of long-term goals

The form of sugar that circulates in the blood and provides the major source of energy for body tissues. When its level is low, we get hungry.

The point at which the "weight thermostat" may be set. When the body falls below this weight, increased hunger and a lowered metabolic rate may combine to restore lost weight.

The body's resting rate of energy output

Defined as a BMI of 30 or higher (calculated from our weight-to-height ratio)

A response of the whole organism, involving (1) physiological arousal, (2) expressive behaviours, and (3) conscious experience resulting from one's interpretations

A machine used in attempts to detect lies, measures emotion-linked charges in perspiration, heart-rate, and breathing

The tendency of facial muscle states to trigger corresponding feelings such as fear, anger, or happiness

The tendency of behaviour to influence our own and others' thoughts, feelings, and actions